While most of the focus on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has been on the changes to the auto rules of origin and enforcement measures aimed at Mexico, Crowell & Moring lawyers explained that importers and exporters of textiles and chemicals also can take advantage of rules that changed from NAFTA for inclusion in the updated agreement.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 1-5 in case they were missed.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said recent actions Mexico took to block the import of biotechnology and pesticides (see 2006040031) make him think the U.S. will have to start a state-to-state dispute as soon as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement takes effect. “USMCA follows the principle that that is the very foundation of our international agreements on trade, that everything should be science-based,” he said, in response to a question from International Trade Today. “And science shows that Mexico’s decision is a political decision and not a scientific decision.”
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Office of the U.S. Representative posted the final implementing regulations of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, covering the interpretation, application, and administration of rules of origin, textiles, and customs and trade facilitation.
A Mexican federal official, along with Mexican and U.S. attorneys, believe that Mexican firms will have to sharply change their labor relations policies, but they aren't as sure about how often labor issues will be brought up, in the context of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. If the U.S. government doesn't agree that a Mexican company has come into compliance with Mexican labor laws, it could lead to goods from that producer being barred from USMCA tariff benefits.
CBP is planning an initially lax approach to enforcement of certifications of origin once the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement enters into force on July 1, said Maya Kumar, director of textiles and trade agreements at CBP, while on a June 1 agency webinar about the deal. “The first six months of this trade agreement, we can pretty much say there will be very little enforcement to no enforcement,” she said. “We understand the position, CBP understands the position that we're in. So we will use maximum flexibility” to avoid putting “trade under stress.” In the unlikely event of a USMCA-related request for information through a Customs Form 28 during those six months, CBP will allow for “extra time to go ahead and get the documents you need from the suppliers,” she said. “The idea is that for the first six months to be extra flexible and then to still use flexibility when we request documents.”
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Even as COVID-19 delays some advances in trade facilitation -- such as being able to use a single window to export into Canada -- the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has good news for it, panelists said during a Dickinson Wright webinar May 28.
Mexico's Economy Minister Luz de la Mora said that the uniform regulations that pertain to issues outside the auto industry will be ready by July 1 -- but strongly suggested that the uniform regulations will not be ready by the date of entry into force of the U.S.‐Mexico‐Canada Agreement. “There has been great progress on non-auto URs, and they will be ready by July 1, as for the auto rules of origin, we expect to advance substantially in coming weeks,” she said during a Cato Institute interview May 27. She said that Mexico wants “to make sure the transition to the new regime is effective, efficient.”